Pathologies: A Life in Essays

In these fifteen searingly honest personal essays, debut author Susan Olding takes us on an unforgettable journey into the heart of being human. Each essay concerns a different aspect of her life, from her complicated family relationships to her tricky dealings with peers, to her work as a counsellor and teacher, to her struggles with infertility and adoptive parenthood. Throughout, she probes the ethics of writing about others, never shying from turning her scalpel upon herself. Pathologies heralds the arrival of one of Canada’s finest new writers, one who has taken the challenging, much-underused form of the literary essay and made it her own.

Praise for Pathologies

“Susan Olding’s work combines the visceral force of lived experience with the nuance and narrative drive of the best fiction. These essays are much more than essays, tracing the path from our pathologies to our deepest mysteries and fears and our most cherished hopes.” (Nino Ricci)

“We could call her warm, wise, funny, honest, sincere, and open—and she is—but what she has done here is even better than that. Pathology is built from the Greek roots pathos and logos—suffering and the word. Writing is Olding’s science; her words clarify pain.” (Keith Maillard)

“Strictly speaking, Pathologies is a collection of essays, but the deeply personal and at times self-reflexive nature of each piece evokes the genre of memoir. Likewise, Olding’s creative blending of straight first-person narrative with unconventional stylistic motifs (lyrical quotations from Keats, symbolic excerpts from medical and other reference sources, temporal shifts, memories) serves to destabilize the traditional definition of the literary essay. Through a series of thoughtful meditations, the reader is left with the singular impression of having witnessed firsthand the creation of a vivid self-portrait.” (Quill and Quire)

“Olding’s collection illustrates that the individual difficulties are not what isolate us, but what unite us in common experience. For in writing about her personal experience, Olding describes elements of our own lives as well. Perceptive readers rejoice to find aspects of their own lives illuminated by such a skillful hand.” (HeraldLeader)

“Pathologies may be Susan Olding’s first book, but there is nothing amateur about it; subtitled “A Life in Essays,” this collection of sixteen essays is an accomplished investigation into the process of life-writing.” (Karis Shearer, Matrix)